In this article, Christopher Bezzina explores what he believes has been the missing dimension that past education reform processes have ignored over the decades. Although there has been mention of the need to ensure that heads of school take on the role of school leaders, this has not happened because of the lack of focus on schools as professional learning communities.

What about school leadership?

The international literature keeps highlighting that school leadership has a significant impact in fostering student achievement thanks to its direct and indirect influence on teaching effectiveness. The impact of leadership is greatest where it is focused on improving teaching and learning, and is amplified when responsibilities for leading teaching and learning are widely distributed across the school or network.

So while teachers have a direct impact on students in their classroom, a school leader affects all students in a given school through their ability in empowering teachers; in supporting teacher agency, sustaining teachers’ professional development over time; and creating a safe environment based on principles such as care and respect. Effective heads and teachers are recognised as the two most important school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school.

More studies have helped to highlight the key dimensions of successful leadership: defining the vision, values and direction; improving conditions for teaching and learning; redesigning the organisation: aligning roles and responsibilities; enhancing effective teaching and learning; redesigning and enriching the curriculum; enhancing teacher quality (including succession planning); building relationships inside the school community; building relationships outside the school community; defining and modelling common values; ensuring students’ well-being; and providing equitable access to support for all students. (Day et al., 2020: 6)

What are we noticing here? The focus of successful school leaders, and leadership focussed on teaching and learning, is not only on facilitating the learning taking place in class, but in creating learning opportunities for teachers to come together and constantly reflect and review their practices. The literature highlights two main models behind successful leadership – transformational and pedagogical/instructional leadership.

Instructional leadership emphasises the importance of establishing clear educational goals, planning the curriculum and evaluating teachers and teaching

We may have highlighted these areas in previous documents but never understood the implications behind the institutionalisation of such models. If the National Education Strategy is going to succeed, then we need to ensure that we embrace the challenge of leadership at systems and school level. Definitely food for thought!

Transformational leadership practices

This model of leadership is most often associated with vision; setting direction; restructuring and realigning the organisation; developing staff and curriculum; and involvement with the external community. Transformational leaders motivate followers by raising their consciousness about the importance of organisational goals and by inspiring them to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the organisation.

As various studies have highlighted, “much of what has been discovered about such leadership in this body of research reinforces the validity of… four core sets of leadership practices” (Day et al., 2020:15). The four main domains focus on setting direction; building relationships and developing people; developing the organisation to support desired practices; and improving the instructional programme.

Here we cannot go into detail about the leadership practices. However, what stands out is that while transformational leadership focuses on relationships, it is clear from the literature that effective transformational leaders also place an emphasis on promoting better student outcomes through the use of pedagogical/instructional leadership, also referred to as ‘leading for learning’.

Instructional leadership

It is our acts of transformational leadership that can lead to the essential focus on instructional leadership. It is the latter that places teaching and learning at the forefront of school decision-making. It is an overarching orientation that gives structure to a school’s direction, evidenced by leadership practices and skills that support teaching and student outcomes, and drive school improvement and sustained success.

Instructional leadership emphasises the importance of establishing clear educational goals, planning the curriculum and evaluating teachers and teaching. It sees the leader’s prime focus as responsible for promoting better outcomes for students, emphasising the importance of teaching and learning, and enhancing their quality. Studies, even local ones, highlight that the more leaders focus their influence, their learning and their relationships with teachers on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes.

Where do we stand in all this? How do you relate to what the literature states is essential for school improvement? Ultimately, it is what you do at the school level that can determine the way forward. Your defining acts of leadership need to become central to our discourse if the National Education Strategy is going to succeed.

Christopher Bezzina is a professor at the Department of Leadership for Learning and Innovation at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education.